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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26034229">The Crystal Dagger</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophieAyase/pseuds/SophieAyase'>SophieAyase</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Tomb Raider (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Timeline, Gen, Legend Timeline, Press Start, Press Start 2020, casefic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 07:55:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,557</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26034229</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophieAyase/pseuds/SophieAyase</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In the Legend timeline, Sophia Leigh didn't die, but rather revealed to Lara the existence of still another crystal artifact, in a tomb in southwestern Spain. With Zip and Alister's assistance, Lara sets out to retrieve it before anyone else can.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Press Start VI</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Crystal Dagger</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Lara, you’re sure Sophia Leigh didn’t just lie to you?”</p>
<p>Lara scoffed. “Well, anything is possible, Zip.” She continued tapping at the wooden wall in front of her. “But I’ve found people tend to be honest with me when I have a gun in my hands.”</p>
<p>Zip chuckled. “Sure. Evil blonde ladies, anyway.”</p>
<p>“Exactly. It’s part of my allure.” She paused as the sound of her taps changed. “Ah, that sounds nice and hollow.”</p>
<p>“It looks nice and solid,” Zip objected. “What are you gonna do, dynamite it?”</p>
<p>“Of course not. That would be terribly undignified.” Lara pulled a shotgun off her back. She heard a sigh over her radio, but whatever came next was drowned out by the gun’s blast and the creaking of the wall as a large, lovely hole opened to reveal the opening of a cavern. “What was that, Zip?” she asked as she ducked through.</p>
<p>“I... oh, never mind.”</p>
<p>Lara grinned as she waved her flashlight around the room. “Beautiful,” she murmured. “A perfect example of Andalusian landforms. It’s a pity Alister isn’t around to see it.”</p>
<p>“Eh, he’s still busy researching this alleged dagger. Last I saw of him was at breakfast.”</p>
<p>“I do hope he’s eating properly, at least,” Lara said.</p>
<p>She didn’t have to hear Zip to know from his tone that he was smiling widely. “Between me and Winston? Not even a nerd like Alister could stay wrapped up in his books when we’ve got food on the table. Well, <em>your</em> books.”</p>
<p>“You are rather talented in the kitchen — Oh!” Lara stopped short, pieces of gravel breaking away under her foot. Her flashlight revealed a chasm in front of her, just over a metre wide. The walls rose up on either side, forming nearly symmetrical slopes. Far too steep to walk on, she realized.</p>
<p>“That was close,” Zip observed.</p>
<p>“I’ve had closer calls,” Lara replied mildly. She pulled a flare from her backpack, lit it, and tossed it down the chasm.</p>
<p>“Hmmm. Not seeing any handholds there,” Zip said.</p>
<p>Lara crouched to the ground and tapped at the stone with an axe. “And too hard for the climbing picks,” she murmured, more to herself than Zip. She ran a hand over it. “Too smooth to take the ledge hand-over-hand.”</p>
<p>She stared off into the distance, straining to see beyond the flashlight’s illumination, though she knew perfectly well such was impossible. “I’m still facing east, Zip?”</p>
<p>“Affirmative. Right in the direction of this alleged tomb.”</p>
<p>“The tomb isn’t alleged,” Lara chided. “We know perfectly well it exists.”</p>
<p>“All right, if you insist on being a purist, right in the <em>alleged</em> direction of the <em>actual</em> tomb.”</p>
<p>Lara smiled softly. “Well, nothing for it, then.”</p>
<p>“What are you gonna do, crawl with one hand and foot on either side?” Zip joked.</p>
<p>“Don’t be silly. The doctor would be livid if I strained a ligament.” Lara rose to her feet, then stretched and bounced her heels a few times to limber herself up. She stepped backwards...</p>
<p>“You’re going to do that jumping-side-to-side thing, aren’t you?”</p>
<p>Lara grinned. “I certainly am. Now, quiet, Zip. Breaking my concentration could prove rather disastrous for us both.”</p>
<p>“Seems more dangerous to you than me,” Zip observed dryly. “You’d be dead, and I’d be...?”</p>
<p>“Out of a job,” Lara replied. With no further commentary, she ran forward, jumped to the left bank, and somersaulted sideways to the right before she could slide more than a few inches. Back and forth she jumped for perhaps a few hundred meters, until a formation came into view ahead of her, like a bridge high above the chasm.</p>
<p>Her eyes narrowed and her mouth shaped into a grin as she passed the flashlight into her left hand, freeing her right to pull a familiar gadget strapped to her belt, keeping her rhythm perfectly steady: flex, leap, breathe; flex, leap, breathe; flex, leap...</p>
<p>Nearly beneath the bridge, she launched a grapple up to it, grinning even wider in satisfaction as it wedged itself into the structure. Before her feet could even land on the opposite bank, she squeezed another trigger in the launcher, pulling herself up toward the grapple. As she neared it, she threw the light onto the bridge, then reached to grab it before her body could slam into it.</p>
<p>Zip whistled appreciatively as she pulled herself up. “Now, that was some fancy acrobatics!”</p>
<p>“All in a day’s work,” Lara said lightly as she freed the grapple from the soft earth where it had embedded itself. “It’s fortunate this lovely little shelf has a nice soft top layer.” She reached over to pick up the flashlight where it had landed, only a foot or two away.</p>
<p>“Yeah, how’s that possible anyway?” Zip said. “Seems like this whole place never learned the laws of geology.”</p>
<p>“Indeed,” came another voice over the radio. “You seem to have a knack for finding such places.”</p>
<p>“’Tis not ours to question why, lads,” Lara said cheerfully. “Alister, I take it you’ve finished your research?” She shone the flashlight around, finding that the shelf extended only to the steep walls she’d jumped from, but continued far ahead. She walked, more carefully this time, as Alister spoke.</p>
<p>“Quite. I found some references to a legend regarding a crystal dagger in the area, but none of the legend itself. Which isn’t terribly surprising, considering this tomb would date to the third millennium BCE. Plenty of time for a legend to be lost before written language came to the area.”</p>
<p>“Never underestimate ancient peoples, Alister,” Lara said. “The Lascaux cave paintings date to around 15,000 BCE.”</p>
<p>“Cave paintings would hardly be adequate to convey a supernatural legend, would they?” Alister retorted.</p>
<p>“Perhaps not. But I take it you believe the tomb Sophia described does exist.”</p>
<p>“It’s certainly possible. The Mediterranean has any number of late Neolithic sites. And while there’s no evidence of weapons made from crystal—”</p>
<p>“Which would fit if this <em>were</em> some one-of-a-kind alien artifact,” Zip put in.</p>
<p>“—plenty of flint knives and arrowheads have been found in Andalusia,” Alister continued.</p>
<p>Lara grunted.</p>
<p>“You suddenly skeptical, Lara?” Zip asked.</p>
<p>“Oh, it’s not that,” she replied. “This delightful passage seems to come to an end up ahead.”</p>
<p>“Judging by your coordinates, you’re very nearly to the site Sophia Leigh indicated,” Alister informed her.</p>
<p>“Well, nothing for it,” Zip said lightly. “Come on back, Lara. You’ll have to go back with some dynamite.”</p>
<p>“And destabilize the entire cavern?” Alister replied sharply. “My God, that would be even more dangerous than—”</p>
<p>“Than somersaulting sideways over a sheer 100-foot gorge?”</p>
<p>“Exactly.”</p>
<p>Lara was ignoring their conversation as she knelt by the earthen wall marking the passage’s end. She chipped at it with an axe, then smiled to herself. “If you lads are quite finished, you may want to pay attention.”</p>
<p>“Think there’s something behind that dirt?” Zip asked.</p>
<p>“I think, Zip, that it is a distinct possibility — ah, there we go.” Another pull of the axe had loosened enough dirt to open up a small stone passage, just big enough for Lara to crawl through. She leaned forward, testing its weight with her arms. “Seems solid.” She pulled herself up and into the passage, her light still illuminating the way ahead. Soon, it showed the end of the crawl space, opening into another room. As she reached the end, she gazed out over the room. “Oh, my!”</p>
<p>“What d’you see? It’s too dark on the monitors,” said Alister.</p>
<p>“Give me a moment,” Lara said with a grunt as she turned around to lower herself down, “and you can see for yourselves.”</p>
<p>Landing softly in the room, she turned back around to shine her flashlight on the scene before her.</p>
<p>“Are those skeletons?” Alister asked. Lara knew from his inflection alone that he was equally repulsed and fascinated.</p>
<p>“Seven, in a perfect circle,” she confirmed. “With some lovely beaded cloaks to cover them.” She shone the light on one to give the boys a better view.</p>
<p>“It looks like amber and ivory along with the usual materials,” Alister said pensively. “That would seem to indicate they served a ritual purpose, yes?”</p>
<p>“Along with the number,” Lara agreed, as she continued scanning the room with her flashlight. “Seven was considered a sacred number well before Biblical times. At the very least, belief in its significance stretches to ancient Egypt. It’s certainly not a surprise that the people of Neolithic Spain could have thought it such.”</p>
<p>“Another archaeological find for Lara Croft and company,” Zip crowed. “But the dagger?”</p>
<p>“Patience, Zip. Ancient artifacts are rarely laid out in the centre of a room, begging me to take them.”</p>
<p>“Uh, I think you’ve found several artifacts sitting in the centre of a room, begging you to take them.”</p>
<p>“Poetic license,” Lara said primly. “But since you’re so concerned about it...” She stepped to a small box and opened it, revealing a stunningly clear serrated crystal dagger with an ivory handle. “Well. I think perhaps I’ll take this with me before we let the good people of the world know about our find.”</p>
<p>“That makes six crystal artifacts,” Alister reflected. “Willard believed there were only four. You don’t think...”</p>
<p>“That there’s one remaining, to make a perfect seven?” Lara let out a soft sigh, of equal parts frustration and exhilaration. “I would bet on it.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Parts of the background here were my own invention or adaptation to fit with TR, but much of it is actually true. A crystal dagger with an ivory handle, dating to about 3000 BCE, was <a href="https://www.dailygrail.com/2016/09/the-crystal-weapons-of-prehistoric-spain/">found in Andalusia in 2016</a>, along with flint arrowheads and blades, amber- and ivory-beaded shrouds, and skeletons of people who seemingly died in ritual sacrifices.</p>
<p>Likewise, belief in 7 being a sacred number does <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolism_of_the_number_7">predate the Bible</a> and was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_in_Egyptian_mythology">prominent in ancient Egypt</a>. One of the things I like about Legend and Underworld (and to a lesser extent the survivor trilogy and Lara Croft subseries) is actual educational material being embedded in them, so I wanted to mimic that, as well as some of Lara's signature moves, from both the Legend and original eras.</p>
<p>I meant for this to be set before Legend/Underworld, hence Alister's presence, but then the reference to Lara threatening "evil blonde ladies" with a gun to get information doesn't make any sense. Ah well. Maybe it follows Underworld in a timeline where Alister lived.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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